Bounty: A Hunter’s Tale

Chapter Thirty-One: Playing A Part

Transforming into a hawk, Xander flew to the bus station, hoping, if she was running, to perhaps catch her there. The normally soothing sensation of the wind whistling around and through his feathers held no joy for him this time. ‘Nat, where have you gone?’ he thought desperately. Why had she left him? She was in such danger and now he couldn't protect her! The thought made his blood boil a little and he dipped, having trouble remaining in animal form. Landing, he changed behind a dismal shed badly in need of...being torn down, and jogged the rest of the way to the bus stop, looking around.

Sasha Hayes leaned against the side of the bus station, looking around. It wouldn't be long before the bus would arrive to head for the Academy. She turned and saw a rather attractive young man jog into the station and look around. She sauntered over to him. "Can I help you with something?"

He glanced down at her. Hot chick. Not as hot as Natalie though. "I'm looking for someone I heard was coming here," he said. "About yay high," he demonstrated, "strawberry blond, sexy as all get-out?"

"You are looking for Foxx as well, are you?" she asked. "I don't blame you. There's a pretty penny awarded for whoever finds her."

His deep gaze pierced into her, "I've been told that," he said. "But no one would tell me exactly how much. Is she really worth all this trouble?"

"She was given an assignment and refused to complete it. That makes her a rogue Hunter...We cannot have rogue Hunters somewhere." Sasha paused and stepped closer to him. "Besides, the person who finds Foxx and either brings her in or kills her would have enough money to live richly for the rest of their days."

"Really?" he asked, turning on the charm and giving her a dazzling smile, "And why would she do something like that?"

"How should I know? Foxx was always one to bend rules as she wished. She's as bad as her father was," Sasha answered, stepping even closer to him. She was now only a few inches away from him.

Xander quirked an eyebrow, "What fun is following the rules all the time?" he asked, stepping back and holding out his arm. "Would you like to get some coffee and discuss this further?"

Sasha looked around the bus station. "I guess I could spare a little time before I return to the Academy." She paused and gave a small pout. "I will miss the bus though."

"There will be another," he pointed, grinning. By now he had managed to catch the eyes of just about every female with hormones in the station. And some without. If he judged this girl right, that should please her.

She shook her head. "There is only one bus in the morning and one bus at night to the Academy." She looked him over. "And if you were from the Academy you would know that. What Hunter School did you come from?" After asking this, she looked around the bus station. As usual everyone was staring at her. And why wouldn't they? She was gorgeous and with the most attractive male she had ever seen.

He gave her a nonsense word in Cherokee, saying it with an air of importance that would probably make her feel like an idiot for not knowing about it. "I was in the area and they told me about this case, but the call was dropped before they could give me the actual number value on all this, or even much of the details."

"Then I will fill you in over coffee," Sasha responded, a huge smile on her face.

He smiled just as hugely and offered her his arm again with a gallant bow.

She took his arm. "You are far too gentlemanly," she said, grinning.

"So they say," he replied, using a tiny hint of magic to urge a taxi their way. He opened the door for her with a smile.

"Thank you," she said, sitting down and buckling her seat belt.

Closing the door after her, Xander walked to the other side and got in. "Jack's cafe, please," he said to the driver. Then he looked at her with an ingratiating smile. "Is that alright with you?"

She smiled. "Perfect. I have not been to Jack's in ages."

"And in whose company have I found myself blessed?" he asked, allowing the slight accent he picked up from his father to flavor his words.

"Sasha Hayes," she answered. "And you are?"

"Xander," he smiled, taking her hand and leaving a light kiss on the back of it before letting it go, holding onto it a shade longer than was necessary.

"It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance," she replied, staring at him. He was most assuredly the most delectable man she had ever seen.

"The pleasure is all mine, Miss Sasha," he said, allowing her name to roll seductively off his tongue like a caress.

Up front, the cab driver rolled his eyes.

She shivered with delight as she listened to him say her name. "Xander, this may seem rather rude, but are you single?"

"My last girlfriend just ran off with another man," he said, looking regretful, then he smiled brightly at her, "But I don't want to talk about that. Right now, I'm all yours."

"Maybe after finding Foxx, I can go after your last girlfriend. She was a fool to run away from you."

"Don't worry; I fully intend to chase her down," he replied easily as the cabbie strained his ears to hear them.

"If you would want it, I would gladly assist you," she answered, finishing with a silent, 'in more ways than one.'

Xander's eyebrows rose, the smile turning slightly from charming to cocky, "I'm sure you would."

"Come Xander, you deserve someone who appreciates how wonderful you are," she purred, looking over at him.

He allowed himself a deep throated chuckle. "My dear, I will let that pass because you just met me, but 'wonderful' is not the word many would choose to describe me."

"You are a gentleman and not an eyesore. That makes you wonderful."

He laughed a bit as the cab driver pulled up in front of Jack's. "What kind of men must they have at that Academy of yours?" he asked, stepping out and walking around to help her from the car.

She smirked. "Ones who think of nothing but guns and hunting," she commented, taking the offered hand and stepping out of the cab.

"What a shame for you," he said, leading her safely out of the street then going to pay the cabbie, leaving a generous tip. Then he went and opened the door for Sasha.

"It is a shame. I have to come in town to find any semi-decent men." She smiled as she went through the door, hips swaying gently as she walked.

"Booth or table?" he inquired, following her inside.

"It does not matter," she answered.

He led her to a secluded booth in the corner, gesturing for her to sit down before him.

Sasha sat down. "So what do you know about the Foxx situation?"

"Not much. You?" he asked, sitting down across from her.

"I wanted to know the information you had been told so I would know what I do not have to cover."

"Well..." he feigned frustration...okay, he didn't have to feign very hard. "Not much went through before my phone lost signal, only that there was a mark named Natalie Foxx, about 5'7", her picture, and a glimpse of a very big number. I have to get my company to invest in work phones for us."

"No, you didn't get a lot of information. If you didn't know, Foxx has been considered to be one of the best Hunters out there. She has never failed to hit her targets, nor fail a mission. About a month ago she was sent to take a rest period here in this town. She grew impatient and insisted on having another job. They gave her one and it was discovered that she had turned, siding with her target and working to protect him. Now the alert has been sent to every Hunter in the States and many around the world as well. Alive she's worth 3,000,000. If you are able to bring in her body, she's still worth 1,500,000."

He whistled, his astonishment completely real. 'Wow,' he thought, 'No wonder she ran.' Still didn't excuse her skipping without him. When he finally found her, he wasn't sure whether he would rip her throat out or rip her clothes off.

"Like I said, any of us could live off that for the rest of our days." She smiled and paused. "I would much rather take her in alive though. I heard that if that's the case she's in for quite a bit. The Academy has planned some extremely nasty things for her."

"What do you want?" he asked as a waitress came up, boredly chewing on spearmint gum and asking for their order in a flat, disinterested voice.

"Just a coffee is fine, thanks."

"Ya want anythin in it?" the waitress asked, popping her gum.

"No thank you."

"Eh. You?" the gum-popping waitress asked.

Xander shook his head, "No, thank you."

"Two coffee's, comin right up," the woman said, her voice so unenthusiastic it almost sounded inflected.

"Well, she's a pleasant woman," Sasha commented as the waitress walked off.

"Never seen someone so happy in my life," he responded dryly, looking after the waitress. Her attitude probably came from recognizing him. She had been happy enough to see him with Natalie.

Sasha chuckled, thinking how he also had a sense of humor. Under the table she began to run one leg up and down his, slowly working up to his thigh.

Xander kept himself from pulling away from her, instead reaching down and gently removing her foot. "Work and play don't mix, dear. Maybe after the target is caught."

"True," she said, staring at him. "But do you think either of us are going to be working tonight?"

He looked at her as if a little disappointed. "You won't?"

"I worked all day today, gathering information and such. For the rest of the night, I'm off-duty."

"Regrettably, I'm not," he said, taking their order off the waitress' tray before she could do more than open her mouth. "But we shall have to arrange for a play date when this is all over," he added with a wink

The waitress stiffened, stood, and stomped back to the counter, apparently to tell everyone back there how much of a cad he was.

"That's a shame," Sasha replied, but perked up at the suggestion of a play date. "I'll have to give you my number then."

"I'd like that," he replied.

She sent him a dazzling smile. "So would I."

He grinned and took a drink of his coffee. "So what weapons do you prefer?" he asked.

"Guns, poison, and seduction," she replied. "You?"

"Me, myself, and I," he replied easily. "Though I can use weapons if I choose to."

She smirked. "Nice," she commented.

"So is that what most of your people specialize in?" he inquired with seeming professional interest. "Guns and poisons?"

"Guns and knives mostly, with some hand-to-hand combat thrown in on occasion. I was suggested for the poison route due to 'the manner of which I dress,'" she answered.

"I see nothing wrong with the way you dress," he replied, giving her a sexy smile.

"Most guys don't," she answered, eyeing him hungrily. "It's part of my allure."

"And here I thought it was your eyes," he said, hamming it up because she seemed like the type to buy it. "So tell me about your classes at the Academy. I am sure you excelled in many subjects."

She smiled. "I don't really talk about the time I spent at the Academy as a student. It was so long ago."

"But I'm interested," he said sincerely. If he knew what kind of things they were taught then he'd have a better idea of what they were dealing with.

"We take all the courses mundanes take, plus extra phys-ed courses, weapons training, tracking, advanced weapons, weapon concealment, advanced tracking, and then there are specialized classes for the mundane, supernatural, and generalized tracks."

"Which track are you?" he asked, keeping his deep blue eyes on hers.

"The supernatural track of course. The mundane track is so dull...and you don't make nearly as much money. And generalization is for people who have no idea what they want in life."

"So why are you on this case? The picture of the Foxx girl didn't look anything other than ordinary."

"That's the brilliance of it all." She perked up. "It's been discovered that she's not mundane at all. She is a shape shifter or something like that. Foxx turns into...well, a fox."

He pretended to laugh. "You have to be kidding me! How ironic!"

"Well, it was her father's last name as well, but both of her parents are complete mundanes. No one can figure out how she is the way she is."

"So no one's been sent out to investigate them?" Xander asked, folding his arms on the table. "She may have been adopted."

"I don't know. It's not like I ever spoke with her at the Academy or anything. She always kept to herself." Sasha rolled her eyes. "She was such an over-achiever. She graduated with the highest awards in the Supernatural track as well as completing the generalized track...and she finished it all two years faster than anyone else had and graduated early."

Xander whistled, impressed, then gave her a rakish grin. "Well, she had a little advantage over most, I'd wager."

"Yeah, though how she kept it secret is a mystery none of us can figure out. No one guessed that she always won on the obstacle courses because she wasn't exactly human." Sasha was slightly annoyed with talking about Natalie...though it would be worth it in the end when she was the one to bag the once great Hunter.

"Did you know her?" he asked, suddenly intense.

Sasha nodded. "We were at the Academy together a few years ago."

"What did you make of her?" he asked, tilting his head to the side.

Sasha shrugged. "We didn't get along really. Like I said, she practically ignored the rest of us and concentrated on her studies. It felt like she had no life outside of Hunting. The rest of us at least took time to enjoy ourselves as well."

"Some of us have nothing better to do, I suppose," he said with a grin.

"The only time I didn't see her working on something for the Academy was when she went into town to read a book."

"So what is our quarry like?" he asked, taking another gulp of coffee and beginning to feel like he was wasting time trying to get useful information out of Sasha.

"Really smart, really talented, one of the best marksmen the Academy has seen, has the highest efficiency rate of all the Hunters...Foxx is the one they called in for the difficult jobs, the ones that paid the most money. She knows how to hide and how the Academy works. I think that's why everyone has been called in to Hunt her down."

He frowned, "Where do you think she has gone?"

"If she's onto what we're doing and has started to run, she could be anywhere. She is one of the best and I can't get into her brain; I don't know if anyone can."

Xander pretended to feel his cell go off. Pulling it out, he looked at the screen, "I have to go," he said, standing and downing his coffee. "It was lovely to meet you, Sasha," he added, putting on his heartthrob grin just in case he needed the contact for later. He tossed a ten on the table to pay for their coffees.

She nodded, slightly disappointed. "I understand. Maybe I'll see you on the Hunt."

He took her hand, kissing the back of it, "Almost assuredly," he said, grinning wickedly. Then he was out the door.